Start To Finish #6 – Done!

The picture above was taken at sunset, from the roof of Colonel’s Retreat, a wonderful place to stay in New Delhi.

Previously I posted that I’d started quilting on the Indian – inspired quilt. It took several sessions and sometimes I had to make myself take a break. It really was fun and seemed to go quickly. You may wonder how one would quilt something 6′ x 7′ on a domestic sewing machine. A few months ago I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but it is.

I have a table with an opening that my machine fits into. The machine is then flush with the surface of the table. Behind that is another large table that supports the quilt as it moves away from me. Finally, I move my large ironing board to my left and lower it so it’s level with my table. It supports the quilt at the side.

The quilt ‘sandwich’ was pinned together with more than 400 pins. Then I mentally divided the quilt into four quadrants and worked on one quadrant at a time. Starting at the quilt centre I stitched vertically towards the bottom edge in approximately 8″ sections. When the quilting was finished, I squared it off and added the binding, which was finished by hand.

I used a size 14 topstitch needle, switching in a new one at the half way point. The thread, both top and bobbin, is Superior King Tut ‘Shekels’, not ‘Sunflowers’ as I’d said earlier. The backing is Moda ‘Grunge’ in colour Mustard. The binding is also from the Moda ‘Grunge’ collection and is colour Gris Fonce. The finished size is 74″ x 82″.

My thoughts, now that it’s done? It looks just liked I’d hoped it would. The colours are bold and bright, yet I don’t think it’s garish. I love the backing and how it shows the swirly quilting. And, in spite of all of the quilting, it’s really soft and cuddly. I’m pretty sure that this is the quilt that I’ll enter into the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild Showcase in August.

Oh, I’m still trying to come up with a good name for this quilt. But, in the meantime, here are some pix.